The United States’ 3rd largest wireless carrier held their quarterly earnings call yesterday, and the company posted a net loss of $847 million. In wake of the poor performance, Sprint’s stock dropped nearly 16% by the time the market closed last night.

Although they added a cool million customers last quarter, the company lost 101,000 contacts. What could be causing such a massive leak? Sprint cited Apple’s popular smartphone, especially the $49 iPhone 3GS, as a major factor for the customer deflections…

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Sprint without an iPhone is struggling to keep relevance in light of larger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Both companies reportedly sold 2+ million iPhones last quarter, a majority of which were subsidized for long term contracts.

So how will Sprint turn things around next quarter? The carrier is reportedly slated to get a version of Apple’s juggernaut device this Fall. Apple’s next smartphone is expected to be a world-capable device, supporting both GSM and CDMA technologies.

Hopefully, for Sprint’s sake, the iPhone rumors are true. With an impending AT&T/T-Mobile merger, the carrier stands to be the only major wireless provider in the U.S. to not offer the hottest phone on the planet.

It would certainly make things interesting if Sprint landed the device, as the carrier offers some of the lowest-priced wireless plans in the business. Not to mention they still offer unlimited data— an option that has gone extinct with most of the competition.

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Count me as 1 of those customers Sprint lost after several years. Jumped ship to VZ iPhone. Tired of waiting for a decent phone.

Contrary to popular belief, Sprint plans are not that low priced. Want to activate an Android, WebOS, WP7 or 4G phone? Oh, well we need to tack on a $10 “premium data fee” never mind the fact that there is no 4G in your area. So their advertised $130 family plan with 2 lines is really $150 (before fees, etc) which is not leaps and bounds better than other networks as they would lead you to believe. Bait and switch if you ask me.

How will they handle the additional network traffic of an iPhone? Probably institute yet another, additional $10 “iPhone fee” knowing them. All the while continuing to advertise their “lowest price wireless plans.”

Don’t even get me started on all the people that have bought into their “4G” WiMax phones only to see them never roll out WiMax as promised to their area and now have announced that they are going LTE instead. So people will now never get 4G service on phones which Sprint is still selling and charging premium data fees for to this day.

Shannon

I agree. Their fees are ridiculous. The plan I signed up for was nowhere near what they charged me for. I’m actually saving money with AT&T.

iCharles

Fingers Crossed!!

Shannon

It could also be their poor customer service, slow as a snail 3G and overcharging that’s to blame. Verizon didn’t have the iPhone until February and was still the largest cellular carrier in the country. The iPhone could help their sales, yes, but the fact is Sprint is just a crap company…

HellocK

Ermm not that um a sprint user or anything but lTE aka 4G is the same thing

Junito

Oh wait aren’t android crap able to save Sprint? Bottom line don’t buy onto the hype of geeks, most folks want an iPhone. Even Verizon the original vendor of R5-D2 droids has admitted slow sales due in part to a lack of iPhone flavors ie 3GS etc.